Friday, February 26, 2016

Kickstart Your Weekend: Interview with Debra Hoenig Parizek

Debra Hoenig Parizek is working on bringing here late husband's dream to life, The Everyverse RPG.

I thought I would spend some time with her to talk about the Everyverse RPG.

Tim Brannan/The Other Side: Let’s start at the beginning, who are you and what is the Everyverse RPG?Debra Hoenig Parizek: I am the widow of the author now, production and marketing director for EVERYVERSE RPG. Both the author, Dennis, and I grew up in Iowa and graduated from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA. I spent 34 years in IT. Since being laid off in Dec, 2014, I have been working in online marketing. I was nudged to bring EVERYVERSE RPG to market after a long weekend gaming session with friends at the end of last June.

EVERYVERSE RPG is a universal system that may be applied to any setting.

TB: How long did your late husband work on this game?DHP: At least 10 years

TB: How did you get into gaming?DHP: I got into gaming because my late husband was a gamer. I believe the first scenarios he and I played were Star Wars based using an early version of what is now EVERYVERSE RPG. Later, I joined his gaming group of college friends. That group started meeting again with the 2nd generation (i.e. sons of 2 members) playing with us old timers.

TB: What are some of your favorite games? Why?DHP: I've played Cyberpunk and AD&D. To be honest, I've been spoiled by playing EVERYVERSE RPG.

TB: What is one of your favorite features about Everyverse?DHP: I think using The Attempt to resolve all outcomes. The structure of The Attempt is simple -- what action is performed, applicable character attribute score or skill cascade score, modifiers. That's basically it then roll your 4D10.

TB: What is Everyverse to set it off from other multi-genre games?DHP: It features 5 methods of character generation, uses the Bell curve (the curve used in real-world IQ measurement) where a score of 100 is average for a population in character attributes and skills scores for more meaningful information at a glance, has skills cascades to describe a skill set from general to more specific and uses a single method, The Attempt, to resolve all outcomes. Also, it presents tables for conversion from other systems to EVERYVERSE RPG.

TB: What sort of games/stories do you expect that people will use this for?DHP: Most recently, it was used by folks who play online to do a supernatural hunters scenario. We have used it to play low-tech, high-tech, Star Wars, Highlander. I believe we will be doing a Harry Potter scenario for a podcast next weekend.

TB: What are your future plans for this game?DHP: The basic rules are available now and I am prepping a supplement on Paranormality. Then, there is a High-Tech Equipment supplement and a Future History supplement. I also want to expand some adventure scenarios into modules for sale.